THE LAND OF STEADY HABITS: An Adequate But Unremarkable Offering

Even in the tumult of the movie industry, eyebrows are raised when a filmmaker moves away from their usual trademarks. This has definitely been brought up a lot with writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s The Land of Steady Habits, a sticking point which sort of misses the forest for the trees. Sure, the details are different: it’s her first adapted screenplay, it’s her first film revolving primarily around men, and in perhaps the greatest tragedy, it’s her first film without Catherine Keener. But it’s still very much in line with her style, leaning on a mix of comedy and drama to capture everyday conflicts.

The film follows a man going through a late midlife crisis, having divorced his wife, retired, and downsized to get away from the money-grasping lifestyle of east coast financiers. If that strikes you as fitting into the recent trend (particularly on American television) of examining male middle-aged anxiety, then you’ve got the basic gist of the film. Our main guy is even a jerk, as these protagonists tend to be, but Holofcener doesn’t blow any of this up for the usual melodrama. There’s drug use but no kingpins and the threat of death but no hitmen. Everything remains contained within the confines of these characters’ posh world, which allows Holofcener to capture an almost breezy tragedy, but it also means The Land of Steady Habits never really breaks out into anything memorable.

A Dramedy With Real Bite

There’s a genre that The Land of Steady Habits fits comfortably within that I refer to as the Sundance dramedy. These films tend to take place in affluent suburbs and revolve around lovably dark characters, often families, with bonus points for quirk. They don’t necessarily have to premiere at Sundance (Steady Habits did not), but the festival fills its slots with so many of these movies that the association is set in my mind.

I don’t mean this designation as a slight but as an acknowledgement that The Land of Steady Habits falls into a recognizable type, and the usual strengths and weaknesses of that type become apparent fast. These films tend to skate along predictable tracks, leaving things like the broken family dynamics firmly established but never fully delved into. Then there’s bits like the shot of a turtle scuttling under a table, which lets you know that the incongruous creature will be important later, because if it wasn’t important then the film wouldn’t even bother. Every ounce of these movies are lean and meaningful, which makes them refreshingly time-conscious (a film under 100 minutes is always welcome in my book), but this also makes the events a bit too tidy to feel real.

At this point I’m committing a personal pet peeve when it comes to reviewing films, criticizing and weighing the genre itself instead of how well the individual film works within the genre. You might be inferring that I don’t much care for this type of film (I tend to be rather ambivalent towards them), but I’m not immune to the charm of the ones that do it well. The Land of Steady Habits is certainly in the upper tier of the genre, particularly since it minimizes quirkiness and maximizes real world consequences. The few times Holofcener leads the film away from predictable beats are interesting, and it shows that she has a solid grasp on the conventions and breakable rules of the genre.

Capturing Character

If there’s one thing that always shines in these dramedies, it’s the characters. These movies tend to be rather talky, and the cast is often filled with respected actors who can make the endless chatter engaging. The Land of Steady Habits is no exception to this rule, relying on some great performances to make its familiar trappings feel less stifling.

Ben Mendelsohn headlines as the bemused retiree who shed his previous priorities without establishing new ones. He’s in the vast majority of the film, and every ounce of his roguish charm is needed to prevent this guy from seeming like a self-made pity party.

He’s helped out by the one detail this film gets absolutely right, and that’s the way weary adults interact with upstart twentysomethings. Mendelsohn and his ex-wife (played by an underused Edie Falco) have an adult son (Thomas Mann) who’s struggling to get his own life started. Mendelsohn and Mann wonderfully tap dance around their fraught relationship, but the alluring and dismaying aspects of dealing with naive young adults is broached more openly when Mendelsohn befriends another couple’s troubled son, played by Charlie Tahan.

Tahan gets stuck with some of the film’s more rote lines and muddles his way through, but the way Mendelsohn reacts to this almost adult is a refreshing perspective change for a genre that’s often more concerned with those troubled twentysomethings.

In Need Of Extended Moments

Given that you’ll probably know where The Land of Steady Habits is headed from the get-go, it’s unsurprising that the film doesn’t reach out with any immediacy. Watching it is sort of like letting the mind relax, falling into its familiarity in a way that’s oddly calming given its decidedly dark tone.

It’s only in minute moments that the film does anything very remarkable, and even then it’s only the kind of pleasures that flit by. A caustically direct critique from girlfriend Connie Britton, a sardonic popsicle wave from a drunken Mendelsohn, it’s these tiny things that perk up viewers just enough to make them feel like they’re seeing something worthwhile. But these meaty bits slide away too easily, and you’re just as quickly back to feeling like you’re only getting a thoroughly adequate meal. It’s not unsatisfying per se, but it also has no staying power.

The Land of Steady Habits: A Decent Way To Pass The Time

I can’t say that The Land of Steady Habits is a film you need to run out and see, but luckily it’s not the kind of film you even need to leave the house to see. It released worldwide on Netflix, meaning you can stream it any time you have an hour and half to kill. If a Netflix original is your go-to for a lazy Sunday afternoon, then it rises to that standard, but if you’re looking for something more, then I’d head somewhere else.

Do you think The Land of Steady Habits is a significant departure for Holofcener or right in line with her previous work? Which of her films is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

The Land of Steady Habits is available worldwide on Netflix.